DebtEliminationTips

Have you ever contacted your credit card company trying to get assistance in reducing credit card debt.? This usually is a complete waste of 20 minutes of your life and generally does not produce results. Credit card debt elimination is something that you will generally need to do on your own as the credit card companies do not have any interest in helping you. Their goal is to keep you in debt for as long as possible , however there are things you can do on your own and I will detail them below.

Having the interest rate reduced on your current credit cards is a step in the right direction . This can be as simple as contacting your credit card company and asking for them to reduce your rate. You will face several possible challenges and ways to get around them :

You should have had at least 6 months of 100% on time and consistent payments to perform this step. If you care about your credit you will do this anyway.

First Option : hen you call in you will get a customer service representative who will almost always say NO. Always ask for a manager and never accept the first no , in a lot of cases the manager will work with you. If they say no tell them that you have several balance transfer offers but want to give them the opportunity to keep your business. This is generally effective and will yield you some results with your credit card interest rate, but by all means isn’t the end. At best they may take a few points off the rate which will help you with making a bigger payment.

 Second Option: If they do not budge on the first attempt there is a second thing you can do to lower your interest rate. Again you should be speaking with the manager to request the following:

Request an upgrade or product exchange to a different card possible a rewards card, usually they will check and accept this request. How did this help you.? You are already a customer and wont have to qualify for additional credit and the credit card company will automatically transfer the balance. What will happen is the rate on the new card will be the default rate, so say you had a card with a 24% interest rate. It will now be around the 12% range depending on their default rate, and this will help you in paying less interest. This is a win win scenario for you and is worth the effort to complete.

Third Option: Transferring your balances to a 0% or at least better card is an option. You still need to be concentrating on credit card debt elimination as the goal, transferring is a short term break and does not fix the overall issue.

Following these steps will put you on a faster track to credit card debt elimination. Do not get caught up in the debt consolidation game too much as it will just distract you from actually taking care of your debt.

Credit card companies are very unforgiving even in today’s economic issues that we are all facing. Miss one payment and they will increase your rates to a very high rate , this will cause each and every payment therefore after less effective. Now that you are in this situation doesn’t mean you give up , instead you should be working hard at correcting the issue . Here are the steps I would take to get your interest rates back down to a manageable level.

First off make sure you understand how you current balance to maximum allowed balance works. To keep from effecting your credit you should never charge more then 40% of your maximum credit limit. So if you have room on other cards and can get a decent balance transfer to a card you already own this would be a good option. The reason you would do this is to lower the balance on the card with the huge rate as it takes at least 6 months of spotless payments to actually get your credit card company to budge.

Now I realize that missing payments are not usually something you do on purpose but somehow you need to sit down and track your money so you do not miss anything, as a matter of fact you should have all your bills paid by the third week if possible.  at the 6 months mark you should be calling your credit card company and asking for a reduction in your interest rate . Never take the answer of the first person ask for a manager , Mention that you have balance transfers to other companies and would rather keep your money with them but the rates and charges are giving you little options . Chances are they will fight a bit but should budge at least a little bit .

If they do not want to play ball then ask then if they have any product upgrades or transfer to a different card such as a card with rewards. It is important ti use the terms product upgrade or transfer , they will more then likely find a card that they are able to transfer your balances . Here is the benefit as you are already a customer it is an internal transfer and you will receive the default rate for that card, this will likely take from the high 20% ratio to about 12-14% . This will save you a ton of money that you would have been loosing in interest charges on the higher interest rate card.

Now that you have successfully gotten your rates back down to a reasonable rate , do not miss a payment  as you will not likely have this option available twice.

Hope this helps and good luck

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